2 Samuel 3:31-39

Amplified Bible

David Mourns Abner

³¹Then David said to Joab and to all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David walked behind the bier. ³²They buried Abner in Hebron; and the king raised his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. ³³And the king sang a dirge (funeral song) over Abner and said,

“Should Abner [the great warrior] die as a fool dies?
³⁴
“Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put in fetters;
As a man falls before the wicked, so you have fallen.”

And all the people wept again over him. ³⁵All the people came to urge David to eat food while it was still day; but David took an oath, saying, “May God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets.” ³⁶And all the people took notice of it and it ^[a]pleased them, just as everything that the king did pleased all the people. ³⁷So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the will of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death. ³⁸Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? ³⁹Today I am weak, though anointed king; these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer [Joab] in accordance with his wickedness!”